This isn't based on my opinion. Like everything you read on this blog, you can Google the National Rifle Association (NRA) video just released. It has a young European (white) woman narrating a tall tale about how the poor white folks of the good ole U.S.A. are so oppressed because of movements like Black Lives Matter that engages in protests that dare to inconvenience white America. The young woman, speaking with a continued sarcastic tone, suggests that by protesting acts of police terrorism, the protesters are somehow pushing non-protesters (read white people) into some sort of oppressed corner. And of course, despite the fact white people have been telling us for centuries that we always need to show restraint and patience when fighting for our justice, this young woman suggests that no patience and restraint should be shown to anyone who decides they want to do something to challenge police terrorism.

I also viewed a response video produced - I believe - by the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter (BLM). This BLM video was well done, but from my standpoint, I long ago grew tired of trying to fight immorality and savage racism in this society with moral appeals for justice. Kwame Ture, when he was a young Stokely Carmichael in 1967, said correctly that "the problem with moral appeals to America is she has no conscious." The NRA is not a collection of confused souls who just need the right moral message directed at them. They have a long history of siding with state oppression against oppressed people. Their support of the California Don Mulford bill in 1967, which was specifically designed to take guns out of the hands of Black Panther Party members on patrols against the police (carrying guns was legal then) is just one indicator of who the NRA is. As this information about their contradictory stance against the Panthers has become much more public in recent years, the organization, which bases its entire platform on gun rights - for white people - has engaged in a campaign to justify its support for the Mulford Act in 1967. They are arguing that during those days the NRA hadn't developed the commitment to protecting the Second Amendment as they are doing today. They direct their critics to the fact they supported a national gun control act in the 1940s as proof, but they must think they are talking to slaves who would pick cotton at night. Its feasible that the NRA would have tried to defend their Mulford Act position. They are a money hungry lobbying organization with a massive budget. I know that at one time, they would have loved to have large numbers of Africans join their ranks as having that would have solved a couple of problems for them on the credibility front. Back in the 90s, I remember being approached by NRA representatives while shopping at gun stores for years. And, they approached me despite my wearing Che Guevara, Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, or other symbols that should make it plain that I'm not a recruit. I even had political conversations with a couple of them back in those days who were trying to recruit me, but that was then. I frequent gun stores and shooting ranges regularly and I never see them anymore. At least not talking to me. Well, these latest anti-African videos may signal a turning of the corner by the NRA. The tenor in the video I saw isn't one that seems to have the slightest concern about how its interpreted by the African community or anyone who is concerned about police terror. Their audience for these videos is clearly that white man and woman who is full of testosterone and ignorance in a way that only hardcore racist beliefs could hold together. Well, I say this is a good thing. You see, African people in this society have been effectively cut off from Africa - who we really are. Many of us believe our absolute only solution is to be accepted in capitalist America and as a result, we will stop at nothing to become an accepted part of this country. And we will tolerate indignities that most whites would have organized a revolution over centuries ago to pursue that acceptance. That explains the moral appeals, which we will discuss further in a minute. First, its important to say that the weak efforts by the NRA to justify its earlier stance against the Panthers shouldn't be seen as an exception. The NRA has never stood up for African people's rights to bear arms and the Second Amendment hasn't either.

The Second Amendment was actually only created to ensure that slave posses in the South and so-called City Watch patrols in the North (created to keep Africans from moving into white neighborhoods) would have their rights to carry weapons protected. That's why the original version of the Second Amendment, written by James Madison, was not accepted with the word "Country" instead of "States" because the framers had to make this a states right issue so they could maintain more control over their racist agenda of terrorizing African people. That's why the term "state's rights" is nothing other than code language from the Southern strategy to direct the multitudes of mindless white people into supporting racist agendas against African and Indigenous peoples. And of course, this strategy continues and continues to work. The NRA videos are just another of a long series of manifestations of this.

The NRA didn't stand up for Brother Castillo in Minnesota when police illegally gunned him down (if you don't remember, he had a valid conceal and carry permit to carry a firearm. He notified the cop of this and that cop immediately shot and killed him). Castillo would have been a clear case for the NRA to take on if they ever had any desire to stand for gun rights for everyone. They have also been dangerously silent on the growing number of African gun clubs and groups who are patrolling African neighborhoods armed. They were silent when officials cited these African gun clubs and organizations as the reason they wanted to impose a ban on carrying all weapons during the Republican National Convention last summer in Cleveland. When all that was happening the NRA was notoriously silent on our gun rights.

I make those points about the NRA not because I'm suggesting they need to stand up for our rights to defend ourselves. Malcolm X told us that we should always be against that which this government is in favor of and that certainly hasn't changed. The NRA is nothing except the private gun lobby of white supremacist ideology which is more concerned about protests against police terrorism than the impact of that terrorism against our people and our communities. Also, if you have been paying attention to this blog than you know I'm not just some keyboard warrior. I helped lead several security efforts against hardcore, often white supremacist, folks in militia groups who certainly were supporters and probably active members of the NRA. So, I can tell you from those personal experiences that when those people saw me they harbored no concerns about protecting any gun rights for me or anyone who agreed with me. So, to me, the NRA is another stooge for the capitalist system which means they could never be for us. That leads me to my final point. Going back to the question of morality. I respect and appreciate the effort behind the BLM response video to the NRA. I am afraid that we are missing the point if we still see our primary option as that of using the U.S. Constitution, or the First Amendment in particular, as our protection against massive white organizations who are essentially calling for white people to stand up and challenge our rights to survive against efforts to systematically eliminate us. These NRA videos have to help us understand that its far past time for us to start organizing ourselves to protect ourselves and our communities. Clearly, there will be very little disagreement within the African communities that we cannot expect this protection to come from the blue terrorists who patrol us. Many of our organizations, from my All African People's Revolutionary Party, to the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, to the Nation of Islam, Uhuru Movement, etc., have advanced examples of how we can get organized to do what we need to do. And, if you don't like any of the existing organizations, start your own, but if the NRA is helping us understand anything, its that the gloves on racism are completely removed. There is open warfare against African people. Many of us see it. And, we are not planning on depending on America's corrupt and racist institutions to protect our people. Now, more than ever, we must demand that our folks make a decision to get involved in this struggle by joining organizations fighting for our liberation. And, that other communities do the same. The NRA can do what it does because it is or-ga-nized! If we are going to defeat these threats, we will most definitely need much more than reliance on a U.S. Constitution which has no practical purpose beyond that of toilet paper.

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I don't see disagreement as a negative because I understand that Frederick Douglass was correct when he said "there is no progress without struggle." Our brains are muscles. Just like any other muscle in our body if we don't stress it and push it, the brain will not improve. Or, as a bumper sticker I saw once put it, "If you can't change your mind, how do you know it's there?"